Played a long game against this guy named cher that went all the way through the Info Age to End Game techs. We both went Random: I was Inca and he was Spanish. It was Secret Random map, which turned out to be Atlantic Sea Power. Not sure who cher is, but he's one of the few guys I've ever played who kept pace with me economically. Early game action was limited to the sea. I made a few ships, but didn't want to overcommit on the water. I kept what ships I saw pinned down. He made a very large navy which he kept hidden in his docks, until later when he broke out. Meanwhile, we both focused on booming economies with minimal land defenses. I made a few towers and the Terra Cotta. I'm not sure what he had made, but when I raided one of his towns with my TCA infantry, he was able to fight them off pretty easily. He raided me with some with ranged cav but they didn't do much damage either. This is one of those games where you're both aging so quickly, it always feels too risky to invest in heavy military, because you'll then end up behind in techs. So you just keep booming because there's not much else you feel you can do. Also, he had the advantage on me having built Colossus. I was capped out and couldn't make very many troops.

My plan was to research World Government and then nuke and bum rush his capital, winning instantly, but he stopped that by bombing my silos (what idiot put them by the water?!) and researching (or starting to research) missile shield. So my next plan was to get Space Program and figure out a better plan...

... when all of sudden...

... I won on wonders. D'OH! "Oh well," That was not my intention; I was primarily trying to NOT LOSE on wonders. I hadn't even noticed the timer. Now, you all know I'm a big proponent of using ALL victory conditions, but in this case, I was left feeling very unsatisfied. Kind of like playing in Game 7 of the World Series, it's all tied up, with 2 outs in the bottom of the 9th, bases are loaded. Just as you come up to bat, the other team forfeits. WHAT THE - ?!

UPDATE: I welcome specific comments on what is an appropriate course of action for a game like that. Attacking across the water is risky business, you cannot rely on being able to reinforce properly unless you have complete command of the seas. And "complete" command of the seas is pretty hard to maintain once air power becomes a factor.posted by Tim at 11:19 PM